Eleri Siôn (; born Eleri Jones on 18 January 1971) is a Welsh radio and television presenter. She currently presents The Friday Afternoon Show and The Late Show on

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Wales, Welsh national radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the Welsh opt-out service of BBC Radio 4. As of August 2022, the stat ...

Monday-Thursday.

Early life

Born and raised on a farm in Neuaddlwyd, Aberaeron, she was educated at Ysgol Gyfun Aberaeron. Her brother is the actor and author Meilyr Siôn. Their father was a farmer and their mother died at the age of 46 when Eleri was 18 years old.

Career

After training and working as a singer and part-time presenter of children's television programmes, she started reading Welsh at

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

. She then took a two-year break in order to present children's sports programme ''Cracabant'' before finishing her degree at

. Having played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

at university, and captained Cardiff Ladies for a year, she joined the sports department of

BBC Radio Cymru BBC Radio Cymru is a Welsh language radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts across Wales on FM, DAB, digital TV and BBC Sounds. The station broadcasts general factual and entertainment pro ...

in 1995, becoming the first woman to report on rugby for the station. After graduation she worked as a television producer with production company Apollo, on programmes such as ''Noc Noc'', '' Cân i Gymru'' (Song for Wales) and ''Dudley.'' She returned to sports in 1997 as a sub-producer and presenter on '' Y Clwb Rygbi'' (The Rugby Club). She then introduced various series, including Seven a Side Rugby World Games, Irish Rugby, World Championship netball and roller-hockey World Championships. During this period she also presented Saturday afternoon sports programme ''Camp Lawn'' (Grand Slam) with Dylan Ebenezer on

. This led to production and presentation work on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

on its darts and pool coverage. Siôn then presented a number of non-sports programmes on

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

, including talent programme '' Wawffactor'',

's coverage of '' Eisteddfod yr Urdd'' and presented ''Y Briodas Fawr'' (The Big Wedding) with Rhodri Owen. After becoming part of the posse on Jonathan Davies S4C Friday evening show ''Jonathan,'' she presented her own chat-show ''Cadair Fawr Eleri Sion (Eleri Sion's Big Chair)''. She also presented quiz show ''100 o Blant'' (A Hundred Children) produced by Tinopolis in 2013 and was a presenter on nightly magazine show '' Heno'' (Tonight) for the same production company for a period in 2012/13. Between October 2013 and December 2020, Siôn presented the daily afternoon radio show on BBC Radio Wales, replacing Louise Elliott. In January 2021, Siôn replaced

Mal Pope Maldwyn "Mal" Pope (born 18 May 1960) is a Welsh musician and composer, who is notable for his contribution to music theatre portraying Welsh national identities and themes. He lives in the village of Mumbles, Swansea. He is known for singing bo ...

as the presenter of the BBC Radio Wales Late Show from Monday-Thursday (22:00-00:30), while she continued to present the afternoon show on Fridays (14:00-17:00).

References

External links

''Eleri Siôn''
(BBC Radio Wales) 1971 births Living people Welsh-language television presenters People from Ceredigion Welsh radio presenters Welsh television presenters People from Aberaeron British women radio presenters BBC Radio Wales presenters {{Wales-bio-stub